We have studied viewing sessions for an exhibit of social science projects, for 3
populations, dominated by school and university students, adults, and social
science students, respectively. Though social science students spent the most
time and viewed most pages, they selected both fewer projects and detail pages
than adult museum visitors, indicating index set review and interest selection.

Our visitors spent, on average, about 1 minute viewing 7 pages on less than 2
topics. Session length in time and page number varied from 4 to 103 seconds
and 3 to 36 pages, increasing with the age and topic 'nearness' of the viewer.
Index placement dominated topic selection for all groups, while use of
embedded links appears related to familiarity with hypermedia presentations.

In conclusion, we would advise that hypermedia exhibits be organized as short
theme presentations and that indexes be ordered by theme importance.

4

Acknowledgements

This project has been part of the celebration activities for the 50th anniversary of
the University of Bergen and the 25th anniversary of the School of Social
Sciences. Thanks are extended to staff, faculty, and students of the Bergen
Museum, School of Social Science, and the Department of Information Science
for their help in the construction and test of the electronic exhibits. Special
thanks are extended to Professor Svein Nordbotten for all project support.

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